1 Hour West of Jasper: Mount Robson (3,954m, Highest Peak in the Rockies), Kinney Lake & Overlander Falls

Here is a trip secret that many visitors to Banff and Jasper miss: the highest mountain in the entire Canadian Rockies does not sit along the Icefields Parkway; it sits just 88 kilometres (1 hour's drive west of Jasper Townsite along flat, wide Yellowhead Highway 16) across the British Columbia border in UNESCO-listed Mount Robson Provincial Park (with free park entry).

1. Why 3,954-Metre Mount Robson ('Yuh-hai-has-kun') Stands Apart

Known to the indigenous Secwépemc (Shuswap) Nation as Yuh-hai-has-kun ('The Mountain of the Spiral Road') because of the horizontal bands of limestone and quartzite spiralling up its face, Mount Robson soars to 3,954 metres (12,972 feet). What makes it one of the most imposing mountain faces on Earth is its vertical relief: because the Yellowhead Highway at the Mount Robson Visitor Centre sits at just 980 metres elevation, when you step out of your car at the cafe deck, you are looking up nearly 3,000 vertical metres (almost two vertical miles) of rock and hanging glacier in a single gaze. (Because Mount Robson catches Pacific clouds, aim to arrive early in the morning when the summit is most often cloud-free).

2. Two Easy Walks Right from the Highway: Kinney Lake & Overlander Falls (With Spawning Chinook Salmon)

1. The Kinney Lake Hike (First Stage of the Berg Lake Trail, 9 km Round-Trip, 2.5 Hours, Easy/Moderate): park at the Berg Lake Trailhead 2 km behind the Visitor Centre (no overnight permit needed for day-hiking to Kinney Lake). On the wetter western slope of the Continental Divide, you walk through a mossy interior temperate rainforest of giant western red cedars and hemlocks beside the milky-turquoise Robson River, emerging after 4.5 km at the turquoise mirror of Kinney Lake beneath the cliffs of Mount Robson.
2. Overlander Falls & Rearguard Falls (2 Mins & 8 Mins from the Visitor Centre, Free, 10-Min Walk): walk 5 minutes from the highway pull-out to Overlander Falls, where the emerald volume of the Fraser River (British Columbia's longest river) plunges over a 10-metre sandstone ledge. Visiting in late August or early September? Stop 5 minutes further west at Rearguard Falls to watch giant 15-kilogram Chinook (King) Salmon leaping up the waterfall after swimming 1,200 kilometres upstream from the Pacific Ocean at Vancouver.